Scope and Contents of the Materials

These materials are records documenting the development and history of McCain Auditorium, the campus cultural center for the live performing arts since 1970. The bulk of the collection consists of programs, broadsides, contracts, newspaper articles, administrative files, and photographs. Of note are programs from the first performance in the auditorium and early performance broadsides.

The McCain Performance Series includes handbills, programs, and season brochures of performances between the years of 1970 and 2010.

The Internal Records includes advertisments of McCain performances, contracts with performers, correspondence between McCain and the performers, financial reports on cost of events, grants written to help pay for various events, and press kits made available to newspapers, television and radio stations to advertise events. There are also 105 3.5" floppy disks and 62 5.25" floppy disks with internal documents. The 3.5" floppy disks include material such as advertisements, brochures, database files, events, and Friends of McCain mailing list. The 5.25" floppy disks include material such as advertisements, brochures, budgets, calendar events, fonts, lighting information, mailing lists, newsletters, photographs, post cards, posters, press releases, programs, sponsors information, surveys, system disks, and workshop information. There are two boxes that are oversized that houses advertisement mock-ups of performances and events.

Photograph and Slides includes of some of the artists participating in the McCain Performance Series and the Other McCain Performance and Events Series. Box 59 houses oversize photographs that includes photographs of McCain Auditorium and the Philharmonic of China.

Other McCain Performance and Events includes Kansas State University (KSU) organizations such as KSU Bands, KSU Chamber Music Series, Department of Music, Theater, and Dance, K-State Orchestra, K-State Players, K-State Singers, Men and Women's Glee Clubs, and Spring Dance.

The Friends of McCain includes advertising and promotion of Friends events, list of board of directors, monthly board minutes, yearly budgets, correspondence between the board of birectors and members of Friends, financial reports of funds raised and spent on events, reports from the KSU Foundation Center of donors designating their donations to Friends of McCain, fundraising brochures and campaigns such as the Yearly Holiday Home Tours, membership lists of Friends of McCain, Friends of McCain newsletters, and season campaign brochures.

Media: CDs, Audio Cassettes and Reel-to-Reel Tapes are made up of one box. It contains two CDs, 24 audio cassettes, three reel-to-reel tapes. The two CDs are titled McCain Movie and is not dated. The audio cassettes titles include Women Light 21, Women Heavy 40, Men Light 10 and 5, Men Heavy 13, 16 and 22 Dolby, Men Heavy 28 and 40, McCain Auditorium with Tag, Frances Mayes Lecture, Posing Music, Cathy Hougland and Women Light 25, David and Cathy Hougland "Cool the Exgines," Big River "Running to the River," and Reduced Shakespeare Company, "The Bible." The titles of the Reel-to-Reel tapes are New York City Opera National Company "Figaro" and La Boheme Radio Ads and Gypsy Radio Ad.

Newspaper articles about McCain Performance Series and Events are from the K-State Collegian and The Manhattan Mercury as they covered performances and events.

Oversize is made up McCain Performance Series and Other McCain Performance and Events Broadsides and Blueprints of McCain Auditorium. The broadsides are extra large posters advertising the date and time of a particular performance. The broadsides includes performances such as ballets, plays and musical plays, operas and concerts. Some ballets performed were The Nutcracker by Ballet Oklahoma, Kyiv Ballet and the Tulsa Ballet, Swan Lake by the Russian National Ballet, The Sleeping Beauty by Houston Ballet and Romeo & Juliet by Ballet West and The St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre. Plays and musical plays performed includes Winnie the Pooh, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by the Montana Repertory Theatre, Sweeney Todd, Cats, Hairspray, Babes in Toyland, Fiddler on the Roof, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Diary of Anne Frank by the Montana Repertory Theatre, The Sound of Music, John Amos in Halley's Comet and Ted Neely in Jesus Christ Superstar. Some operas performed includes La Boheme by the Texas Opera Theatre, Rigoletto and Madame Butterfly by the New York City Opera National Touring Company,The Barber of Seville by the Western Opera Theatre, Die Fledermaus by the Kansas State University Opera Theatre, The Merry Widow by the London City Opera and Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) presented by Mozart Festival Opera. Concerts performed includes Vienna Choir Boys, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, National Philharmonic of Russia, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, The Uptown String Quartet, Canadian Brass, Venice Baroque Orchestra and the Kronos Quartet.

The Blueprints of McCain Auditorium are of when the auditorium was first being built. These blueprints are of the lighting systems throughout the auditorium.

Biographical Note

McCain Auditorium was built in 1970 and was known as the KSU Auditorium. When President James A. McCain retired in 1975, it was renamed McCain Auditorium. It serves as home of student music, drama, opera and dance. McCain Auditorium is the culture center for the live performing arts serving students, faculty and staff, along with the general public. It has a rich history of bringing world-class engaging experiences to northeastern Kansas.

In 1981, the McCain Development Board was established to promote the McCain Performance Series to the surrounding communities. It also raises funds for the series to ensure that live performing arts experiences enhance and become integral to the lives of of university and surrounding community members. During the 1983-1984 season, the Friends of McCain Auditorium was established in order to generate more support.

The free school matinee performances that provide pre-college students live arts education experiences free of charge at McCain Auditorium was started in the late 1980s under the direction of Richard Martin. These performances are designed to nurture a lifelong appreciation of the performing arts.

In 2008 a circular drive and a World War II Memorial was constructed for better access to McCain Auditorium

McCain Auditorium is committed to enhancing cultural expression, developing human potential and expanding knowledge by offering innovative engagement programs throughout the campus, community and region.

Processing Information:
The majority of the collection was processed by project archivist Ashley Stark from 2010 to 2015, and processor Cynthia A. Harris processed part of the Newspaper articles about McCain Performance Series and Events, Media: CDs, Audio Cassettes and Reel-to-Reel Tapes and Oversize: McCain Performance Series and Other McCain Performances and Events and Blueprints of McCain Auditorium and described the records from 2015 to 2016. University archivist Cliff Hight processed the digital records and reviewed the finding aid in 2016.